A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for displaying information graphically.
B. Description of the Related Art
A problem today for many practitioners, particularly in the science disciplines, is the scarcity of available time to review the large volumes of information that are being collected. For example, modern methods in the life and chemical sciences are producing data at an unprecedented pace. This data may include not only text information, but also DNA sequences, protein sequences, numerical data (e.g., from gene chip assays), and categoric data.
Given this flood of diverse information, effective and timely use of the results is no longer possible using traditional approaches, such as lists, tables, or even simple graphs. Furthermore, it is clear that more valuable hypotheses can be derived by simultaneous consideration of multiple types of experimental data (e.g., protein sequence in addition to gene expression data), a process that is currently problematic with large amounts of data.
Others have developed graphical depictions of multivariate data. See e.g., Nielson G M, Hagen H, Müller H, eds., (1997) Scientific Visualization, IEEE Computer Society, Los Alamitos; Becker R A, Cleveland W S (1987) Brushing Scatterplots, Technometrics 29:127–142; Cleveland W S (1993) Visualizing Data, Hobart Press, Summit, N J; Bertin J (1983) Seminology of Graphics, University of Wisconsin Press, London; Cleveland W S (1993) Visualizing Data, Hobart Press, Summit, N J. Although these efforts may provide a graphical description of data, they do not provide an integrated, interactive, and intuitive approach that allows a user to explore information to discover knowledge.
There exists, therefore, a need for methods and apparatus that address the shortcomings of these graphical interfaces.